


Finding their happy ending

by greeny1710



Series: Carlando [2]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Look I promised a happy ending and im delivering it, M/M, in the past, literally just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21858586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeny1710/pseuds/greeny1710
Summary: Lukas Daniel Ricciardo.Lando owes a lot to that little boy.
Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen, Lando Norris/Carlos Sainz Jr
Series: Carlando [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1574998
Comments: 10
Kudos: 97





	Finding their happy ending

**Author's Note:**

> So this is like part 2 in a three part fic that I have planned in my head?? So obviously it follows on from 'Looking for his happy ending', but it's not really important to read that if you haven't / don't want to for self-love reasons. But this is the happy ending, nearly. 
> 
> I have one more fic planned where I actually really explore Carlos and Lando finding their family, before it just becomes like my Happy Birthday Max fic in which I just write whatever I feel like haha.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this my dudes and that it makes up for the absolute heartbreak in the previous work❤️

Finding their family hadn’t even been down to Lando and Carlos. As it seemed like happened with everything, little Lukas Ricciardo had a hand in finding Lando and Carlos their happy ever after. 

Lukas had been at school, happily enjoying his day, when he’d gone flying head over heels and smashed his head into the concrete playground during his lunch break. Max and Daniel had left their youngest in Lando’s care whilst they rushed their eldest to the hospital. Apparently, Lukas hadn’t even cried when he’d woken up from knocking himself out, just smiled and asked why his daddies were at school. But the school had insisted Lukas get checked out, and so Lando had promptly offered to look after Jak whilst the parents fussed over Lukas, who seemed very excited at the prospect of getting to go to the hospital and have the doctors take special pictures of his head. 

“Hey, Lando,” Max had called late into the afternoon.

“How is he?” Lando instantly asked. He’d been terrified all afternoon, just waiting to hear about how the little one was. 

“Lukas is good, he’s going to be fine. He has to stay in overnight,” Lando hissed in a breath but Max quickly said, “It’s just routine. Because it was a nasty smack and he now looks like he’s got a potato on his head with the size of it, they just want to be sure he’s okay. It’s a really mild concussion and he’s basically made of rubber at this age anyway. He’s going to be okay.”

“Oh thank god,” Lando sighed, hugging Jak tightly and kissing his hair. “He’s really okay?”

“Absolutely fine. Not even thrown up, which is great.” Max confirmed. Lando could hear the smile and the relief evident in his voice. 

“DADDY ME SPEAK WITH UNCLE DO!” 

Lando laughed as he heard Lukas screaming down the phone and Daniel vehemently shushing him, reminding Lukas that they were in a hospital and there were lots of poorly people who needed to sleep. But Lukas didn’t care as he continued to whine until Max told him to behave or he’d put the phone down on Lando. Lando bit his lip and repressed his laughter the entire time. With Jak asleep beside him and Lukas screaming down the phone, Carlos in the kitchen, it felt like home. And Lando felt at peace. 

It had taken him a long time to get to this point. Months of therapy to get to a point that he could accept that he and Carlos were just one of those couples that were unfortunately not able to get pregnant. And sometimes, on bad days, it still was there, at the front of Lando’s mind - reminding him how he’d failed. But then he’d look at Carlos. And he’d be reminded that they’d still get their family. They’d make their family one day, just not in the way they’d originally planned. 

And Lando did have a family. He had two beautiful little paddock nephews, in the form of Lukas and Jak Ricciardo, and he got the joy of being an Uncle and watching and laughing as Lukas taught his much younger brother how to have fun. Whilst they’d never told Lukas what had happened, Lando was sure that Lukas had picked up on there being something wrong. The little boy had pulled back a bit when Lando had been sad, hadn’t questioned why he and his brother had suddenly stopped visiting Lando and Carlos for a while, and eventually, when Lando had started smiling a little bit more, Lukas had come back, bearing a giant grin and warm hugs. 

Max eventually handed the phone over to Lukas once he promised to quieten down, and Lando smiled when he heard Lukas’ little voice. 

“Hi Uncle Do, the doctors took pictures of my head!” 

“I heard, bud, and you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I got stickers too! And they took a picture of my skellington,” Lukas told Lando. 

“They took a picture of your Jack Skellington?!” Lando replied, smiling at the slip-up in language. 

When Lukas had stayed over last, he’d begged and begged to be allowed to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, and upon Daniel saying it was okay, Lukas had cuddled in between Carlos and Lando for the entire time, not taking his eyes of the screen and smiling the entire time. The only issue had been that Lukas was now convinced that skeleton wasn’t a real word and only insisted on calling it a skellington. But Lando counted that as a win. The kid wasn’t traumatised and he’d slept through the night with no nightmares. It was fine. 

“Yeah, but now Daddy says I gotta stay here so the doctors can keep an eye on me noggin’,” Lukas told him, sounding very sorry for himself. 

Lando smiled when he heard Max sigh and correct Lukas that it wasn’t ‘me noggin’ but actually ‘my head’. Max had been fighting that losing battle for a while. 

“You have to buddy, we need to make sure you’re okay. Don’t want your brain to fall out, do we?”

Lukas giggled and agreed that it would be bad. 

“Love you, Uncle Do, Daddy wants the phone back now.”

“Love you too, kiddo. I’ll see you soon, okay?” Lando promised, before he heard Max come onto the line again. 

“You can bring Jak up if you want, probably do Lukas some good to see his brother, but I don’t know what’s happening about who is going home tonight.” 

“We’ll bring Jak over, but we can take him again if you want,” Lando offered. He’d grown used to having Lukas around again, looking after him for longer periods of time, but he’d not looked after just Jak overnight yet. The prospect of looking after a baby had been a bit too hard for a while. But slowly, things were getting better and looking after the little one wasn’t exactly the worst thing to Lando’s mental state right now. 

“We’ll see what happens, depends if Daniel decides to go home or not.” Lando couldn’t see, but he knew that Max would’ve been glaring at Daniel’s indecisiveness.

Lando agreed that he’d head over with Jak soon, once Carlos had finished up doing whatever it was he was up to. Jak was still fast asleep regardless, curled up on his side with his head on Lando’s lap whilst Lando brushed his fingers through the little boy’s soft blonde hair. 

“Lukas alright?” Carlos asked as he came into the room, dropping a kiss to Lando’s head as he walked past. 

“Yeah he’s fine. Max said we can head on up with Jak, Lukas could do with seeing him before they keep him in overnight.”

“Concussion?” 

“Mild one,” Lando clarified, seeing the anxiety in Carlos’s eyes at the prospect of the little bub being injured. 

Carlos let out a sigh of relief and finished off tidying up what he was doing. He headed over to the coatrack and came back with Jak’s tiny coat and Lando’s own jacket. Lando pulled Jak into a sitting position, smiling softly at the way Jak’s head lolled forward and he stayed asleep. Gently he manoeuvred the yellow parka jacket onto Jak’s sleeping body and then handed him to Carlos so he could get up to pull his own jacket on. 

With Jak safely held on his hip, Carlos took Lando’s hand in his and pulled him out the door, slowing for a moment so that Lando could lock it behind them, before pulling him to the car. 

The drive to the hospital was uneventful. Jak stirred at some point, gurgling happily to himself and then laughing when Carlos started singing along to some song on the radio. 

Lando watched Carlos drive, a soft smile on his face. 

Maybe he was ready to start thinking about their own family. 

Seeing the way Carlos held Jak, worried about Lukas, sang purposefully worse than normal just to make Jak laugh, it all reminded Lando why he even wanted this in the first place. Carlos was good. He was nice. He’d teach his kids to speak Spanish and whisper like co-conspirators with them whilst Lando would whinge about not knowing what ‘jamón’ is. 

“Let’s start looking,” Lando murmured, leaning across and taking Carlos’s free hand in his. 

Carlos looked sharply across at him, his face going blank as he looked between Lando and the road. 

“Really?”

“Really,” Lando told him, smiling at the grin slowly coming up Carlos’s face. 

“You’re 100% ready? You know we can wait, we can always wait. You know we will wait until you are ready,” Carlos checked.

“I’m 100% ready,” Lando laughed. 

“We’re going to have a family,” Carlos whispered, dropping his head back to the headrest and letting out a deep breath. The look in his eyes was soft, like he couldn’t believe Lando had finally said those words. 

And Lando knew that Carlos meant it when he said that they could wait. But he didn’t want to wait. He’d spent enough time waiting. 

As it turned out, they didn’t even need to wait that long. They’d pulled into the hospital carpark, bitched for a little bit about the inordinate cost of parking in a hospital and how prices were becoming insane, Jak held on Carlos’s shoulders, and made their way up to the children’s ward. 

Max met them outside the ward, looking exhausted but all the fear he’d exhibited when they’d got that phone call from school was gone and instead he just looked relieved. Jak babbled and reached out for Max, squealing happily when Max hugged him tightly. 

“Come on, Lu wants to see you both,” Max motioned before nudging the door open with his shoulder and walking back onto the ward. 

The two men followed Max down an endless stream of corridors before they seemed to finally make it to the ward Lukas was actually being held on. Lukas had his back to the entrance, busy chatting away with another child as they scribbled in what Lando could only assume was a colouring book, whilst Daniel sat in the chair at the side, talking quietly with another lady. 

“Kas!” Jak shouted when he caught sight of his older brother, instantly reaching out to be put on the bed beside his brother and his brother’s new friend. 

Lukas looked around at the shout, before bouncing up onto his knees and holding his arms out to hug his brother. Lando and Carlos both winced aloud when they saw the state of Lukas’s head. Max really wasn’t kidding when he said Lukas had a potato-sized lump on his head, only he’d failed to mention the bruising on each eye. 

“Jaky! Come meet my friend! She’s called Livvy!” 

“Lukas, inside voice, we’ve talked about this,” Daniel chastised, rolling his eyes at his son’s enthusiasm. 

Max put Jak down next to Lukas and gently ran his fingers through his curls, mindful of the bump before turning to Lando and Carlos. 

“The bruising really isn’t as bad as it seems. When he fell, because he landed on his face, he busted his nose up so it’s just from that. The doctors tested and he can’t feel any pain there, so it’s fine. Don’t worry,” Max smiled. 

Lando knew Max was probably refraining from laughing at them both. Normally it was the parents that took more calming down, not the extended uncles, but Max and Daniel had also had a lot of phone calls from Lukas’s school over the last couple of years with injuries, and Max wasn’t kidding when he said the kid was made of rubber. This just seemed like the worst thing Lando had ever seen. 

“Anyway, meet Olivia, she’s Lukas’s new friend,” Max quickly looked across at Daniel, and Lando frowned when he saw the matching mischievous grins on their faces. It was the same grin he’d seen on Lukas’s face right before Lukas told them that he’d done something that he probably shouldn’t have (most likely involving the Vettel-Räikkönen’s) but wasn’t actually bad enough to get himself into trouble for. 

Olivia dutifully looked up and waved, smiling at the two men before going back to her colouring, talking softly with Lukas and Jak. 

“This is Olivia’s carer, Tess,” Max introduced. 

Lando rolled his eyes heavenwards when he realised what Max was doing. 

“Pleasure to meet you both,” Tess shook both of their hands and smiled warmly at them. 

“Mr Max, are they your friends?” Olivia asked, looking strongly up at them with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, they are, they’re very nice people,” Max agreed. 

“They have good faces.” Olivia nodded, which had Daniel laughing. 

“Olivia is one of our placements,” Tess told them, “She and her sister came to us after an incident-”

“Mommy and Daddy forgot about us so they don’t get to live with us anymore,” Olivia shrugged, as nonchalant as a child could be about the situation, before continuing to babble without even looking up from her colouring, “So we need a new mom and dad, or new dad and dad, or new mom and mom. Or even just one of them. Maybe even a grandma or a grandpa. I dunno. Miss Tess just says we gotta wait for the right people.”

Lando felt his heart break, even though Olivia was clearly very much fine and she wasn’t as traumatised as most people would expect a child to be. 

Carlos walked over and knelt down next to the bed, looking up at Olivia and smiling at her. 

“And how old are you?”

“Am six, Mister Max’s friend, how old are you?” She asked. 

“I’m very old, I’m thirty,” Carlos told her. 

“Wow, I only just learnt that number.” 

Lando watched the way Carlos chatted with the tiny individual. Every word that came out of Olivia’s mouth just had Lando fall in love with her that much more. 

“She has a little sister,” Max nudged, whispering quietly, “Four months old.”

Lando let out a gasp and he looked up at Max. 

“She’s a baby?”

“Tiny,” Max nodded. 

Lando shut his eyes for a moment. 

“Carlos?” He asked, interrupting Olivia mid-story but she didn’t seem to mind. 

“Carlos, come talk to me,” Lando beckoned him over, and Carlos was quick to move, seeing the way Lando had tears in his eyes. 

They quickly stepped off the ward, away from all the children and staff and parents. 

“Mi vida-”

“I think she’s the one,” Lando breathed, looking anywhere but at Carlos. His eyes were flicking about, not even focused on anything but he just couldn’t stop. He was trying to not completely break down at the prospect that Lando was pretty sure he’d just met his future.

“Lando, don’t rush into this.”

“I’m not, I mean, we still need to meet her sister anyway, but… But Carlos I look at her, and I see a future. I see a family, and I think she’s it. I think this could be our family, Carlos.”

Carlos pulled Lando into a hug, his arms tight around Lando’s shoulders whilst Lando’s grip went around Carlos’s waist. 

“We don’t rush this. We check, we visit, we see the other children too-”

“But we can think about it, yeah?” Lando almost begged. 

“Of course.” Carlos promised.

He kissed Lando’s head through his curls and squeezed the back of his neck. 

Lando completely understood the reasoning behind why Carlos didn’t want to agree that Olivia and her sister could be the one. They’d got their hopes up in the past only for them to fall and crash and burn. 

But Lando really did have a good feeling about this one. 

And three weeks later, with Olivia sat on Carlos’s lap and baby Emily held in his arms, meeting the two girls together for the first time at their placement home, Lando was pretty sure that this was going to be his happy ending. 

All because little Lukas Ricciardo ran too fast at school and ended up in hospital having a picture of his skellington taken.

**Author's Note:**

> That felt good. 
> 
> (also 30 is not old, I just find it hilarious that children think anyone that is more than like 5 years older than them are just shook that people keep ageing)
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, lemme know if I made up for breaking everyone's hearts in the other fic haha (and gave you a sneak peek at Baby Ricciardo #2, so do I get an extra bit of redemption for all the hurt? haha)
> 
> Tumblr is available at 3303andmore - memes and sneak peeks. that's what I use that account for. 
> 
> I also take prompts! For pretty much anything / any AU, so always feel free to drop it either down below or at my Tumblr.
> 
> Much love, and I'll see y'all in the next one x


End file.
